In New Mexico, a 23-year-old gunman wearing a red MAGA hat opened fire last week on Jacob Johns and other Indigenous activists opposing plans to reinstall a statue honoring the 16th century conquistador Juan de Oñate, New Mexico’s first colonial governor. Johns, the prominent climate activist, was airlifted from Española to an Albuquerque hospital and required emergency surgery. We speak with Malaya Peixinho, who participated in Thursday’s gathering, about how the statue of the colonial leader has divided the local community. “It is a really controversial thing to talk about Oñate,” says Peixinho, who believes funds for the statue could go to social programs instead. “That feels more important than funding a statue being resurrected.” The shooter, Ryan Martinez, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for shooting Johns and aiming the gun at Peixinho, who calls the charges “fair” and blames police for not intervening. “They didn’t show up for us,” says Peixinho.
Transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/3/espanola_protest_shooting
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF5lGtMxivU
ACH! someone’s mad at a stupid statue of a stupid bad guy from 400+ frakkin years ago… Imma bringa gun! Imma use mah gun! I got bang bang!
This is the second time there has been a shooting at a protest about this statue too. The first was in 2020 when they took it down.
That guy is still not sentenced, but they couldn’t make the shooting charges stick, so he will likely only serve 2 yrs for assualt and battery.
At least this case is cut and dry. Shooter leapt a barricade to attack a people, people defended themselves until he leapt back over it alone, then he pulled a gun and shot someone who wasent even fighting him before fleeing the scence at 100+ mph.
So thats how they want to … make America great again???
MAGA is about making them feel good about their shitty selves. He showed for the deplorable shit they believe, so that’s good enough.